Step 6: Why these ingredients

Step 7: Other ingredients to consider

Instead of the gums, some recipes for hair gel I saw use gelatin. I prefer to avoid putting extracts of dead animals in my hair, but it should work fi...

If you buy conditioner at a drug store, you get a plastic bottle, mostly full of water. Just like bottled water, that's wasteful of energy shipping the water around, and wasteful of plastic. In addition, it usually has a bunch of possibly harmful chemicals in it. I figured that if I made my own conditioner, I could re-use a bottle hundreds of times, ship less weight around the country, and know what ingredients I am using. And at the same time, save money--my formula can make 16 oz. for only 12 cents!

If you want to check out the safety of the conditioner you are using, you can look it up at the Skin Deep cosmetics safety database. You can also search for low-toxicity conditioners. When I tried to do that, I found stuff that looked really benign, but cost $20 a bottle, plus shipping, and I wouldn't be doing anything to avoid buying bottles and shipping water around the planet.

So I looked for conditioner or hair gel recipes on the web. There are some out there, but a lot of them use the same chemicals that I'd prefer to avoid. There was one that worked great -- boiling flax seeds in water to make an amazing gel --but the result goes bad in less than a week and ends up smelling like rotten eggs. It's worth considering doing that and keeping it in the fridge to prevent spoilage, but I wanted to see if I could make something more convenient.

It turns out that this formula also has something of the same problem--it spoils eventually if it's not refrigerated--so unless you want to add preservatives, you need to make small batches, or keep most of it in the fridge. But it works well--as you see in the comments, some people swear by this formula.

Several comments also suggested aloe vera juice. You can buy that in a bottle or grow your own. That's also likely to have the problem of needing preservatives to last without refrigeration, but it seems to do a little better in my limited experimentation as far as keeping at room temperature.

Thank you so much for this recipe! I'm just about to make up about my 6th batch. I have rather Celtic hair...... red , frizzy, ringlets and lots of it heehee........ Sooo fussy with my product but this works just as well as the one I was already using, possibly even better, and the cost, well........... that's great too :-) THANKS!!!

This has been the first winter my hair has not been frizzy and dried out. I stopped using shampoo 10 years ago and have only been using conditioner on my curly, and therefore, dry hair. I have been using your conditioner recipe for about 2 months and my hair is soft and curly, even in January! I also had to take a trip in February and all I took with me for haircare was 1/2 tsp of xantham gum and 1/2 tsp of guar gum for a double batch. When I got to my destination I found a container, added 1-1/3 cups of water and 1 tsp of oil and voila! No hassles with airport security and my hair has the same stuff it is used to at home.

I have dry, curly hair, and thought for a long time that I was going to have to use commercial products if I wanted my hair to set in soft curls rather than frizzy or stiff and chunky (the results of earlier all-natural experiments). This is the first recipe I've tried that results in consistent "good hair days". And as a bonus, after 5 months off of commercial products, my hair is much healthier, bouncier, with almost no split ends.

For shampoo, I use a squirt of unscented liquid castille soap in about a cup of water. After rinsing it out, I follow with a dollop of lemon juice diluted in another cup of water, which restores the pH and adds "slip" and shine. Then a dab of your recipe as conditioner, which I rinse out too. I put a bit more in as leave-in gel, depending on the humidity of the day, and let it air dry.

I brought in some of the gel to my hairdresser to use when I asked her not to use commercial products when washing out my hair. She thought it was fantastic, and loved the way it set when dry. She shared it with her boss, who also thinks it's great and wants to play with the recipe someday when she opens her dream salon with a freshly-made-hair-product "buffet". :)

Thanks so much for the feedback! This was very much an experiment, and I wan't sure whether anyone else would find it useful. The thing I've found the most difficult is simply that it has such a short shelf life. My solution to that is to divide a batch into tiny travel-size bottles and freeze all but one. Have you had that problems with that? I also appreciate the tip on following liquid castille soap with lemon. Maybe adding the lemon to this solution would increase the shelf life, and save you a step. More to experiment with!

Regarding the shelf life, I keep a container in my fridge, fetch it each morning before I shower, and pop it back into the fridge when I'm done. The ratio I use is 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon canola oil, and either 1 or 2 teaspoons guar gum. (I couldn't get the xanthan gum easily, and this works pretty well without.). I mix it up in the blender, gum added last, which ends up smoother than when I tried it by hand.

I found that the thicker gel stays good a little longer than the thinner, so I can take it with me unrefrigerated for short vacations and it stays good. When I'm traveling with the thicker stuff, I use a little less and rub it between my hands to de-clump it before I put it in my hair. Your freezing idea is clever - I haven't tried that yet!

I hit on the diluted-lemon-juice rinse after trying the often-touted diluted-vinegar rinse and finding that even in very dilute solutions, my hair would smell vinegary if it was a rainy day. I looked into the reasoning behind the vinegar rinse (pH balancing back to acidic, because soap is more basic than the natural scalp pH), and figured that lemon juice might work just as well. It does! And even when it rains, my hair doesn't smell lemony, although if it did, it'd still be better than vinegar. Lemon juice is even more acidic than vinegar, so I make sure not to use it undiluted. Also, lemon juice can have a lightening effect over time if it's not well rinsed out. This doesn't bother me, but it's worth noting.

The following information has been unscientifically gathered from The Internet:

- The pH of healthy hair ranges between 4.5 and 5.5. - Soap can range from "pH balanced" neutral (7) to alkaline (8-11). - Rinsing with diluted vinegar (3) or lemon juice (2) supposedly neutralizes the alkalinity and shifts the balance back towards the acidic.

Part of me wonders why rinsing it all out doesn't get the hair's pH back to water's neutral 7, but rinsing out soap with all the water in the world doesn't seem to take away the tangly "squeaky clean" texture that comes from too much alkalinity. And after I've done the lemon juice rinse, that grippy texture is replaced with a more natural-feeling "slip" that doesn't go away, even when I rinse really well. So although I don't quite understand how, it does seem to work.

You're right that lemon juice on its own has a pretty long unrefrigerated shelf life, I think because it's so acidic. I think that anything that increasing the acidity of the conditioner to the level where it stopped going bad would probably be too acidic to leave on your hair without rinsing it out thoroughly. But, if you're using it only as a rinse-out conditioner and not as a leave-in, it could definitely be worth a try! What if you used just lemon juice as a base, and added the oil and powders to that?

I haven't experimented with grape seed oil, but I know it's a popular natural preservative that could probably be used in a leave-in formula.

I'm also intrigued by the pure-aloe-vera that hoopajoo and rimar2000 suggested. Have you tried it? How would you say it compares with your formula in terms of how your hair feels?

I use aloe vera leaves cutting them along side, by the middle. A leaf lasts one week to me. The result on the conservation and recovery of the hair is remarkable. It's FREE, and very easy of use it. Nevertheless, this instructable is very good.

Hi there. You can make your life easier by adding enough glycerin or honey to the gums make a paste. Then you can add it all at once without clumping. Also glycerin and honey are both humectants, drawing water to the skin and hair, and honey feeds the hair with amino acids, vitamins, minerals, etc, and is antibacterial, antimicrobial, and a natural antibiotic.( honey is awesome)

Amazing article. I have collect more ideas about hair conditioners make at home. This article is really amazing and will be helpful for our readers.http://sumitathanere.hubpages.com/hub/Natural-Homemade-Hair-Conditioners-And-Their-Recipes

Thank you immensely for this recipe. I will def give it a try. Also....

Tocopheryl Acetate is Vit E. You can get this anywhere. You may even already have it in your medicine cabinet. Just grab a small capsule, poke a hole into it and squeeze out a couple of drops into whatever you're making. This is a great addition and can prolong shelf life of shampoos, conditioners, creams, etc. A little goes a long way- i.e. 1-2 drops per batch of conditioner above. Vit E. is an antioxidant and prevents rancidity in oils. It's also beneficial to the skin in blocking UV rays and moisturizing.

So, if you're looking for a natural preservative- this is a great place to start but because there's water in this recipe, spoilage will eventually occur.

I'm so glad I stumbled on this page. I have very fine, oil hair, as do my daughters, & I've been working on a homemade conditioner recipe that uses coconut oil & some other essential oils. The problem is that coconut oil doesn't rinse clean, but after reading all of your posts, I believe adding citric adic, decreasing the amount of coconut oil, & adding the guar/xantham gum will solve the problem. I'm headed down to the kitchen to give it a whirl!

Also, if you're interested in a longer shelf life for your conditioner without refrigerating it, try adding a few drops of Vitamin E oil. Other great options for this are rosemary antioxidant (extract) (can be found from mountainroseherbs.com/), vegetable glycerin (which is also a great humectant & available in organic, also from mountainroseherbs.com/). Citric acid (available in bulk powder form, yay!!) is also great for extending shelf life:) Oh, & you can try potassium sorbate, though some people prefer to avoid it. It's considered safe & used in some organic products, but can have some unpleasant side effects if used frequently (more likely if ingested frequently).

I missed this comment before, and haven't looked at all of your site, but you've got a great collection of lots of conditioner recipes at http://kingsdaughters21.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/natures-way-conditioner.html

And it's also interesting that you note that among commercial products, conditioner is particularly problematic as far as containing ingredients you might want to avoid.

I tend to be pretty minimal in using anything like that, so I'm afraid you'd need to experiment--or you might try sending a message to one of the other people who have commented here. Sorry I'm not more help.

Guar gum is directly from guar beans, so that's vegan; xanthan gum is made by bacteria feeding on glucose or on whey (cheese bi-product), so it might not be vegan, depending on the supplier. So to keep it vegan I'd suggest using only the guar gum.

hey do you know if this is safe of color treated hair? i think it is but iam not quite sure...it doesnt have any sulfates and thats what makes me think it is but i am not sure because i dont what the gum and/or aloe reacts to it. so is it or isnt it?

Nice idea! Do you have any suggestions on sources for aloe gel without additives, or with safe additives? I looked at one that said it was 100% aloe gel, and then the ingredients say 99.5% aloe gel, so I wonder what the other 0.5% is. Here's one that says 100% aloe vera gel but has also "Triethanolamine, Tocopheryl Acetate, Carbomer 940, Tetrasodium EDTA, DMDM Hydantoin, and Diazolidinyl Urea" in it. Perhaps aloe needs some preservatives if you bottle it and sell it? That makes me inclined to follow rimar2000's suggestion and grow aloe myself.

I don't mean to be totally paranoid about additives, and I understand the need for preservatives, but when there's a choice, I'd rather not.

I usually buy a brand called Lilly of the Desert. It's crystal clear and is true 100% aloe. I've even used some cheap aloe gel used in treatment of sunburns, just don't get the ones with benzocaine (a numbing agent). Most of that they have is a preservative and perhaps a spf agent as well (pretty much harmless). What I buy usually is from WalMart and costs about $1.99 and lasts me a little over a year.

Thanks!!--I think I'll get some and try it while I wait for my plant to grow.

It seems that Lily of the Desert sells it both with and without preservatives, but both look pretty safe compared to some cosmetics--the preservatives are citric acid and potassium sorbate, both of which are considered safe in food.

They also sell "whole leaf" and "fillet juice" versions, and they sell it as "juice" or "gel", the gel having less than 1% carrageenan as a thickener.

I also noticed on Lily of the Desert's web site that they have their own conditioner. It's got a long list of ingredients so I won't look them up tonight, but it would be interesting to see what they are, how safe they are, and try to figure out why they added all that instead of just telling people to use the juice or gel.

Your solution of just using aloe gel looks more promising than anything else commercially available, and Lily of the Desert looks like a great company. I'm going to try it, but I'm pretty happy with the formula in the instructable, and it's hard to beat the cost.